VividSimon Simply Perfect

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

MusicChat It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

MartinHafer I noticed that this was called a 'sex romp' or 'adult comedy', however, the film really is pretty wholesome and not the sensual film you might imagine.The film is a merry mix-up film starring Jack Lemmon, Dorothy Provine and Romy Schneider. Lemmon and Provine are happily married and he has a lower-level job working for an advertising firm. However, his hum-drum life is about to be turned upside down when some seemingly harmless lies begin to snowball. First, when his wife's friend (Schneider) is about to inherit $15,000,000 dollars, there's a problem--because it's stipulated that she can only have the money if she's happily married. But, she's separated from her husband (Mike Connors)--and Lemmon agrees to pretend to be the husband. At the same time, Lemmon has a VERY old fashioned client (Edward G. Robinson) and Robinson prizes Lemmon for being a decent family man. However, the 'wife' he sees Lemmon with is Schneider--and to keep this account, they must continue to pretend to be married. Plus, some of Schneider's cousins now have hired private detectives to prove the two are not happily married--and there's even more reason for them to pretend to be married. It all gets pretty crazy and the lie continues to snowball even more. How far it goes and how it all ends is something you'll just need to see for yourself.Aside from people THINKING there is hanky-panky going on, this is a pretty chaste and rather funny comedy. In many ways, it's reminiscent of an old-time Hollywood screwball comedy and I enjoyed it very much. My only quibble, and it's a minor one, is that Schneider was miscast. Her Austrian accent was not adequately explained away in the plot and although very beautiful she just wasn't right for the part because of this inexplicable accent. However, Lemmon was terrific and the film was quite clever.

JLRMovieReviews Jack Lemmon stars as the all-American clean decent-living man with good family values. Or so his boss thinks so, when they get him to salvage an advertising account that is almost out the door, when Edward G. Robinson (who is always great) is insulted by their first slogan/gimmick for his product: Nerlander dairy products; more specifically, his eggs.But what they don't know is that his wife's best friend has moved next door to Jack and his wife. One thing leads to another and a case of mistaken identity is afoot. The neighbor has inherited some money, but she needs Jack's help in getting it, due to a clause. That's where "Good Neighbor Sam" comes in.It seems light-hearted, fun, and entertaining enough, but once complications set in and things go awry, it goes way off base and the last 30 minutes or so are more exhausting than funny. And, they leave several plots and/or questions left unanswered and unresolved with its abrupt ending.You will recognize one of the "fun girls" from "The Andy Griffith Show" in the last twenty minutes in a memorable bit.("Oh, Bernie!") All in all, if you don't want to think for well over two hours, then sit back and enjoy Jack Lemmon and his neighbors. But, just remember, when you do a favor for someone, anything might happen.

jackmronner Does anybody know who wrote the theme song? Did they live in Danville, or do I misremember? Since I have to pad this out a bit: has anyone else heard the Dorothy Provine had somethingon the order of a 160 IQ? Does naybody know why there is a minimum of ten lines required for comments? It smacks of mandatory loquaciousness. What of the laconic types among us who are cinct-suckers (I'd love to see what spell-check would make of that last word)? I do recall that, for its time, it was considered a bit risqué when it first came out. Well, I've run out of things to say and it's still a line or so short. But if you like this film, check out "How to Murdre Your Wife" and a very sexy Inger Stevens as Matthau's wife.

deejayQ "Good Neighbor Sam" (1964) 131 minutes (2:11) comedy starring Jack Lemmon *(Possible Spoilers)*Recently ordered the VHS from Amazon and watched it for the first time since I was ...uh, much younger. Still "cute" and amusing in a 1964 kind of way. Has some great moments, but also could be tightened up considerably by today's standards. A wide variety of sound stage, backlot and real city streets were used in the filming, so the production values are very "stagey" in some scenes. Yet it feels like the director tried to break it up with different camera angles in several scenes of the same location. An awful lot of "rear projection" shots for traffic scenes, though; and yet-- a series of comedic vignettes throughout the movie actually call attention to the "R.P." as if on purpose! Some of the action scenes are exaggerated through the use of accelerated camera speed. Such shots may remind you of "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World."Story and plot? Actually, quite good for it's day. I'd call it "sophisticated slapstick." Sure there are a few holes in the plot, but it's a comedy, not a biblical epic! I'd say for 1964 this was probably very, very good. (And, hey! Martinis are "in" all over again in 2003! ;-)Jack Lemmon plays a bored ad man, a lowly creative type in the - literal - bowels of the ad agency building where he works. The fates intervene to place him, quite suddenly, in the limelight as the new head of the agency's most important new account. But merry mix-ups ensue to confuse Lemmon's co-workers and his home life -- where hebecomes forced to assume the identity of his new French neighbor's husband! There's much more to it than that, of course, and once the plot drivers are set up, the story plays out in what today might seem a predictable fashion but what was probably fairly original in 1964.I enjoyed the attempts at injecting reality into the mix by getting out of the sound stage. Watch for scenes showing stylized bits of life behind the scenes at a big-city ad agency with important accounts; cars whizzing through the streets of a pre-"Bullitt" San Francisco; and the prototypical display of "California Suburbia" for Sam's own neighborhood. (Everyone seems to drive brand new cars there -- easy to pick out if you know your 1963-64 model cars. Although here I may be showing my age. ;-) It is an odd sort of feeling, in fact, to note some of the detail in the sets, set dressings and the wardrobe and fashions: if this were a "period" film shot today, I'd say they did their homework very well. But it was contemporary, "present day" story telling in 1964! Watch as well for "product placement." There's a surprising amount for way back in '64. Some of it is integral to the story; much is not.And it is simply amazing how many faces you will recognize... a veritable who's who of b-line and character actors like Louis Nye, Robert Q. Lewis and even Mike Connors-- ol' "Mannix" himself! Plus, the venerable Edward G. Robinson plays way against his usual type in his role as the important new ad agency client everyone sucks up to. But this is Lemmon's star vehicle, and he's in tip-top form here. It's "Ensign Pulver" AFTER the war! Overall, this is one of those movies about which the old folks say, "they just don't make 'em like that any more!"-DJQ 5/16/03